Boston for our 20th

Fenway if baseball fan

The first thing I would do is search this board using the term BOSTON

Much of what you will be told and are looking for is already in another post somewhere.

Boston

I’m currently on vacation but will come back to this thread when I get home and give some suggestions.

My initial thought when I read your post was “where the hell is Copp’s Hill?” I had to google it to realize it’s the cemetery in the Common. Walked by it a thousand times but never knew the name.

What time of year will you be in town? That will help dictate some activities.

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The resident Boston expert created this thread in 2018.

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That thread is so old. It still has a lot of useful stuff but it desperately needs to be updated. It’s a lot of work though.

My wife and I are going this week for a last hurrah before our little guy shows up.

We are planning to do the Freedom Trail, a game at Fenway, walk around a bunch to gawk at buildings, and drive down to Newport to see the mansions (my wife’s request).

I looked at the Boston thread quite a bit along with Reddit in an attempt to plan for eating more than anything. I can reply back if we hit any great or not so great ones. I have Abitas thread saved on my phone so I can look at restaurants for whatever area we end up in come meal time and hopefully save ourselves from any bad meals. One problem with the internet is I can find people saying you have to eat at Place X and others calling the same pace overrated. Time will tell how we do.

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drive down to Newport to see the mansions

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Dell’s frozen lemonade. Find it, get it.

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I’m currently on vacation but will come back to this thread when I get home and give some suggestions. My initial thought when I read your post was “where the hell is Copp’s Hill?” I had to google it to realize it’s the cemetery in the Common. Walked by it a thousand times but never knew the name. What time of year will you be in town? That will help dictate some activities.

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Selfish bump looking for updated info from Abita Fan(mainly restaurants). I’ll be going in June with my wife and another couple.

Ok, finally getting around to responding. Apologies for the delay.

First, a week is a long time, and you can usually see the typical things one would want to see in Boston within a 3-4 day period. So with that said, I would encourage you to consider taking one or two of your days to explore areas outside the city (more on that later).

While in Boston, there are some things that just have to be done if it's your first time:

Freedom Trail - This can be done solo using an App, or you can do a guided group tour. You'll learn more on the group tour, but you can go at your own pace if you do the App route. Additionally, if you do the latter, you can pop into some historic taverns and have a drink and a snack. Bell in Hand is the famous one because it's the oldest bar in the country, but I prefer going to Green Dragon right next door.

Fenway - Even if you're not a big baseball fan, going to Fenway if the weather is nice is hard to beat. If there isn't a game being played while you are in town, the tour is not expensive and very interesting.

Shopping on Newbury Street, which can be done in tandem with a walk through the Boston Public Garden and Beacon Hill. I'd also highly recommend walking through the Boston Public Library, which is the country's first library.

Museums - Isabelle Stewart Gardiner, JFK Presidential Library, and the Museum of Fine Arts are all outstanding.

Breweries - If you and your wife enjoy beer, you'll enjoy Boston. Top places in and around the city to check out include (but is not limited to):

Trillium
Harpoon (get the pretzel)
Lamplighter (Cambridge)
Aeronaut (Somerville)
Nightshift

Restaurants - There are so many I could recommend, so it depends a bit on your price point, what foods you're wanting to have, etc. However, this list is a good place to start:

Yvonne's
Mariel
Neptune Oyster House
Mamma Maria
Row 34
Woods Hill
MIDA
Saltie Girl
Krasi (there's also a speakeasy behind Krasi called Hecate which is great, but it's not easy to get into without being there in line before they open)
Kava Neotaverna
Galleria Umberto (quick slice of pizza for lunch)
Bova for cannoli and other pastries

As for leaving Boston, if you decide that's something you want to do, I'd recommend renting a car and driving the hour and fifteen minutes to Newport, RI, or you can drive 2.5 hours (or take the Amtrak) and go to Portland, ME. You can also drive 45 minutes to the town of Newburyport and go to the beach at Plum Island and explore the town itself, which is very quintessential small town New England.

I'm happy to answer more specific questions or provide more information, but this should get you off to a good start.

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Newport to see the mansions 

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I have lived about 30 minutes away for the last 30 years, been to Newport a bunch of times, and never stepped foot in one of those mansions. Always seemed silly to me to pay money to walk through a house. Newport itself is fantastic though. Eat at the Brick Alley Pub.